Ladies, we ALL know that the key to a happy marriage...
...is a clean oven!
(record scratch)
(Raucous laughter)
Not really.
Although part of me kind of wishes it was that easy.
So we've had some spills in our oven, like you do.
And now, unfortunately, every time we turn it on it smells like something's burning.
So it's definitely time to get it cleaned up before Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Of course you could just go the route of Easy Off, which does work, although his stuff is pretty caustic.
I mean they say it's safe to use, but they also say that you need to wear gloves and
maybe even a mask when you use this which...
I don't know...I don't really like to use this on something I'm going to be cooking food in.
So today I'm going to try a couple of more natural methods.
I asked the members of the ChickFix DIY Group Page on Facebook for some suggestions,
and I got a couple of good ones. One involving lemons, another involving baking soda.
So I'm going to try both of those today and see if either one works.
The first suggestion that I tried came from a member named Brig Jones, and she said
take some lemons, cut them up,
put them into an oven safe bowl with some water.
Put it in the oven, turn it on.
And let it sit in there and steam for a good long time (I left it in for about an hour).
Then turn off the oven, let it cool enough to be safe to get in there and start wiping things down.
Now I'll be honest: I really didn't have a whole lot of high hopes for that method,
because, I mean come on: steam?
But it actually did soften things up a lot in there.
So I think if you use it as a precursor to one of these other methods, it might actually help.
Now seeing that lemon steam actually do some good gave me some enthusiasm about trying
lemons in a different way, so I looked up a recipe on a website called OvenClean.com,
and I found a recipe to make a lemon juice paste.
First get about a half a cup to a cup of lemon juice.
I used fresh squeezed but I imagine concentrate would work fine too.
Add in a couple of tablespoons of corn starch.
And cook it on the stove just enough to where it starts to form a nice thick paste.
Let it cool a bit and then add in a couple of teaspoons of dish soap.
Rub it all inside the oven, and then let it sit for 10-15 minutes, and wipe it off.
And once again I am impressed with the power of the lemon.
but there are some other methods I still want to try out that other people sent in.
A member named Melanie, as well as a few other people, mentioned using a baking soda paste to clean the oven.
Baking soda has a ton of uses around the house.
Seriously, I could do an entire video just on the uses of baking soda beyond baking.
So I did some Googling, and there are
a few different ways to make a baking soda paste.
I went with just about a half a cup of baking soda,
with a couple of teaspoons of water, mixed it to where it was just thick enough to be a paste.
And then spread it on the inside of the oven, and left it overnight.
In the meantime, I filled up a spray bottle with some vinegar,
and in the morning sprayed it, down let it sit for a few minutes and bubble,
and then wiped it off.
I gotta admit, this one was a little bit disappointing.
I really thought it would work out better...although if I had used vinegar or lemon juice to begin with,
instead of the water to make the paste, maybe it would have come out a little bit better.
If you have any experience with that, and can tell me what I did wrong,
COMMENT BELOW PLEASE!
Another suggestion that came from the ChickFix Group Page was Bar Keeper's Friend
And this one came from Rita, although several other people backed her up on it.
I don't think you can really consider this a "natural" way of dealing with this,
because there's a lot of crap in here.
But it doesn't burn my skin when I touch it, so it's probably better than Easy Off, right?
There is a liquid version of this, but my grocery store was out of it.
So I'm gonna take the powdered and make a paste out of it myself.
The Bar Keeper's Friend and a little bit of elbow grease actually worked really well.
But the window is being really, really stubborn.
So I'm gonna try out my own concoction, and see what happens.
Okay it's not perfect, but this oven's seen a lot of life in the last 17 years.
I don't think it's ever going to be perfect again.
I think in the future I'll probably use the lemon steam first,
and then hit it right after with some of the Bar Keeper's Friend.
That seemed to be the two that worked the best for me.
If you have suggestions that I didn't cover here, please comment them below.
I'm always looking for new ideas.
What the f*** is that sh*t?
(laughing)
That? It's your dinner.
It's a bit weird.
I mean, not "weird," it's just a bit...different.
What do you mean?
I always look like this.
I feel like your hands are dirty.
They're not, they're clean.
Ew! Personal space!